Elevating Explanations
by AussieEllie
Summary: Cottonwood Mall: Home of fashion, fast food and freaky math girls stuck in elevators with theatrically overwrought drama queens. Written for the ZA Angels Write-off Challenge: Audrey’s Theme.


**Title:** Elevating Explanations

**Summary: **Cottonwood Mall: Home of fashion, fast food and freaky math girls stuck in elevators with theatrically overwrought drama queens. Written for the ZA Angels Write-off Challenge: Audrey's Theme.

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** High School Musical and all of its characters belong to Disney. I'm just borrowing them for a while…besides, Disney would never let their characters have this much fun! I also don't own any of the Barry Manilow songs mentioned (thank efron for that!)

**A/N: **Here's my short but hopefully sweet entry for the second ZA Angels Write-Off theme, dedicated to our favourite Sharpay-loving admin Audrey….Hope you like this hun! Oh, and Cottonwood Mall actually exists and is the biggest mall in New Mexico apparently.

* * *

"You slapped me!"

Cottonwood Mall. Home of fashion…

"I can't believe you…"

Fast food…

"Why would you…"

And freaky math girls stuck in elevators with theatrically overwrought drama queens.

"You. Slapped. Me!"

'_How do I get myself into these situations?'_ Gabriella thought with a groan as Sharpay held her hand against the rapidly reddening handprint on her cheek, _'Oh right, because my boyfriend has irresistible puppy dog eyes.'_

It was the week after the Lava Springs Talent Show and Gabriella, after much prodding from Troy (Gabi please…she's not so bad really, and I know she wants to be friends, she just doesn't know how to ask) had reluctantly asked Sharpay if she wanted to go shopping together. The blonde-haired teenager had rather enthusiastically agreed and before she knew what was happening, Gabriella found herself caught up in the whirlwind that was a Sharpay Evans shopping spree. Shoes stores, dress boutiques and jewellery retailers had been almost plucked clean with abandon, the pile of bags shared between the girls growing to monstrous proportions. Finally, after five straight hours of retail 'bonding time', they'd entered the elevator to descend to the food court. Wearily leaning against the back wall, Gabriella had suddenly found herself pitching sideways as they ground to a halt, the elevator jolting hard then stopping completely. Sharpay had pushed all the buttons on the control panel to no avail, before promptly launching into an all-out Oscar-worthy hysterical tirade, brought to a dramatic conclusion by Gabriella's hand making full-on contact with her face.

"Yes I did. Why? Because you were hysterical. We're stuck in an _elevator_, it is not the end of the world. All we have to do is ring the security centre's number on our cellphones and they'll get someone from maintenance to fix the elevator, capiche?"

Sharpay stared at Gabriella (who was silently bemoaning the fact that Fulton had influenced her vocabulary) for a long moment, before sitting down on the floor with a huff. Crossing her arms, she turned away from Gabriella and stared fixatedly at the wall.

"Fine. You do it."

Mentally plotting out the best way to ring her boyfriend's neck for even thinking this was a good idea, Gabriella pulled out her phone and after a short conversation with a very nice security guard named Tony, was assured that a) someone from maintenance would be there within ten minutes and b) the problem would be fixed in at most an hour. Hanging up, she glanced over to see Sharpay still stubbornly ignoring her. Sighing, she let herself slide to the floor and the two girls sat in relative silence with only the upbeat tunes of Copacabana emanating softly from the elevator's speaker.

* * *

_Oh Mandy, You came and you gave without taking, but I sent you away._

Twenty minutes had passed and Gabriella was _this close _to tearing her hair out as the elevator's speaker cycled through its repertoire of 'Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits'.

'_Whoever decided that this would make great elevator music should be drawn, quartered and thrown to the birds.'_

As the strains of _Mandy_ faded away to be replaced with another soppy love ballad, the brunette couldn't take it anymore and in an uncharacteristic bought of anger, threw one of her shoes at the control panel. The offending speaker sputtered miserably before finally falling silent after one final burst of static.

"Thank you."

Sharpay's voice was quiet and Gabriella was unsure for a second that she had even spoken before tentatively replying,

"You're welcome, there are a lot of things I can tolerate but non-stop Manilow is not one of them."

"No I mean, thank you for inviting me to come shopping with you. After what happened this summer I didn't think you'd even want to be in the same vicinity as me, let alone be nice while you were."

Gabriella blinked in shock, barely restraining the urge to rub her eyes in disbelief to make sure that Sharpay hadn't been magically swapped out. She wasn't completely successful though as a hurt and slightly offended expression crossed Sharpay's features.

"I can be nice you know," she said sulkily, flipping her hair in a gesture of indignation.

"I'm sorry it's just…last week thanking me would have been last on your list of priorities," Gabriella tried to explain, "I'm not sure why that would change."

Sharpay's expression softened and she dropped her gaze down to stare at her Jimmy Choo flip-flops.

"Someone made me realise that being the centre of attention was not the most important thing in the world," she raised her eyes to Gabriella's, "And that friendships could be worth more than anything money can buy…except maybe my new Prada tote, that's pretty priceless."

Gabriella chuckled at the last line and making a quick decision stuck her hand out in a gesture of friendship.

"Hi, I'm Gabriella and I love singing, reading and my boyfriend Troy, however oblivious he may sometimes be."

Sharpay stared uncomprehendingly for a moment before slowly extending out her manicured fingers and lightly shaking Gabriella's hand.

"Hi Gabriella, I'm Sharpay and I love performing, the colour pink and my brother, however annoying he may sometimes be."

The ice broken, the two launched into a discussion of the clueless nature of the male species and that was how the maintenance team found them thirty minutes later, sitting across from each other giggling with uncontrollable laughter.


End file.
